The tree of humanity | Teen Ink

The tree of humanity

December 20, 2009
By Nokachi SILVER, The Woodlands, Texas
Nokachi SILVER, The Woodlands, Texas
5 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
In my hands the means
In my heart the will


A tree once great
Left hallow now
Its leafs grounded and dried

All around life flourishes,
Relieved that it has died

Its leafs too proud
Abused their roots
And took more than they need

And growing thorns on every branch,
The roots gave to their greed

Its roots of sin
Had ran too deep
And left a bleeding earth

Taking with malicious greed,
More than it was worth

A story on this very tree, had made it to my ear
Of time when it had caused no pain, and earth had little fear

But when its branch of knowledge grew, the suffering began
Its selfish leafs never knew, their greed was out of hand

Its branch of knowledge, grew faster, than anything on earth
And knowing all the harm it caused, ignorance gave birth

It strained the earth, knowing that her limits were surpassed
And basking in its selfish pride, the tree finely collapsed

Its fallen fruit
Had bared a seed
That germinated fear

Shaking in a violent gale,
Earth new its heir was here

Its fallen leafs
Picked by the wind
Carried a distance vast

Dropped in a sea of old decay,
Known to the ancient past

This heavy dose
Of ignorance
Left here to fade away

And rolling in its waves like ghosts,
Voices seem to say

“We knew what’s right,
but did what’s wrong,
now planted is our seed.”

The phantom voice gave pause before,
it sigh a final creed

“Any leaf that ever fell
of our ancestry,
was tainted by our roots of sin,
that condescend our greed.
It cant be helped, the suffering,
that we caused all life.
We are the fruit of ignorance
made potent in our strife.
So let us rot, here in our guilt.
We know how wrong we’ve been.
As for the pride, that we all felt,
it passes to our kin.
But please don’t scorn
The painful tracks,
we know their steps will leave.
In their life they will be blind.
Though still they will conceive,
The wrongs they did,
before they fall.
And suffer as they dry.
Before they join this lifeless sea,
where with us they will cry.”


The author's comments:
What inspired me to do write this was the thought that humanity is a great race that is regressing rapidly, but this steady regression will eventually lead to our digression. This poem is a giant extended metaphor, of course the tree is Humanity, the leaves are each individual human being, the roots are what gather our resources that help us grow so rapidly and steal from the earth. The sea is all the past generations of humanity rotting in guilt, only realizing the course of their actions after it had caused their down fall.

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